Randy Reese (born 1946) is an American college and

Olympic Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece bet ...

swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, such as saltwater or freshwater environments, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Swimmers achieve locomotion by coordinating limb and body movements to achieve hydrody ...

coach. Reese is best known for coaching the

Florida Gators swimming and diving The Florida Gators swimming and diving program represents the University of Florida in the aquatics sports of swimming and diving. The program includes separate men's and women's teams, both of which compete in Division I of the National Coll ...

teams of the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preem ...

to four national championships, and coaching the winners of eighteen Olympic

gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

, eight

silver Silver is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag () and atomic number 47. A soft, whitish-gray, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and reflectivity of any metal. ...

and eight

bronze medal A bronze medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of bronze awarded to the third-place finisher of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc. The outright winner receives ...

s. Reese is a member of the

International Swimming Hall of Fame The International Swimming Hall of Fame and Museum (ISHOF) is a history museum and hall of fame, located at One Hall of Fame Drive, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, United States, operated by private interests and serving as the central point for the stu ...

Early life and education

Randy Reese was born in

Daytona Beach, Florida Daytona Beach is a coastal Resort town, resort city in Volusia County, Florida, United States. Located on the East Coast of the United States, its population was 72,647 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is part of the Deltona� ...

in 1946. He attended

Mainland High School Mainland High School is a public high school located in Daytona Beach, Florida, United States. It is attended by 1,979 students of grades nine through twelve. The mascot is a Buccaneer and strongly resembles the old logo of the Tampa Bay Buccanee ...

in Daytona Beach, and was a member of the Mainland Buccaneers swim team. After graduating from Mainland, he attended

Florida State University Florida State University (FSU or Florida State) is a Public university, public research university in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preeminent university in the s ...

Tallahassee, Florida Tallahassee ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat of and the only incorporated municipality in Leon County, Florida, Leon County. Tallahassee became the capital of Fl ...

, where he swam for coach Bim Stultz's

Florida State Seminoles The Florida State Seminoles are the athletic teams representing Florida State University (FSU) located in Tallahassee, Florida. They compete as a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I, prima ...

swimming and diving team in

National Collegiate Athletic Association The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

(NCAA) competition from 1965 to 1967. In college, Reese was primarily an

individual medley Medley swimming is a combination of four different swimming strokes ( freestyle (usually front crawl), backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly) into one race. This race is either swum by one swimmer as individual medley (IM) or by four swimmers as ...

swimmer. During his

senior Senior (shortened as Sr.) means "the elder" in Latin and is often used as a suffix for the elder of two or more people in the same family with the same given name, usually a parent or grandparent. It may also refer to: * Senior (name), a surname ...

year at Florida State, he was diagnosed with a

heart murmur Heart murmurs are unique heart sounds produced when blood flows across a heart valve or blood vessel. This occurs when turbulent blood flow creates a sound loud enough to hear with a stethoscope. The sound differs from normal heart sounds by th ...

and switched from swimming to coaching Stultz's freshman team, and Reese discovered his life's calling.

Coaching career

High school

After graduating from Florida State in 1968, Reese accepted his first full-time position as the head coach of the men's and women's swim teams at the

Bolles School The Bolles School is an American private college preparatory day and boarding school in Jacksonville, Florida. It has a lower school (including pre-kindergarten), a middle school, and a high school, spread across four campuses around the Jackso ...

Jacksonville, Florida Jacksonville ( ) is the most populous city proper in the U.S. state of Florida, located on the Atlantic coast of North Florida, northeastern Florida. It is the county seat of Duval County, Florida, Duval County, with which the City of Jacksonv ...

, where he also coached the

Amateur Athletic Union The Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) is an amateur sports organization based in the United States. A multi-sport organization, the AAU is dedicated exclusively to the promotion and development of amateur sports and physical fitness programs. It h ...

(AAU) team J.E.T.S. from 1969 to 1971. In 1971, Bolles' rival prep school, Episcopal High School, enticed Reese to become the head coach of its men's and women's swimming and diving teams. Under Reese, the Episcopal men's team won the high school national championship title.

University of Florida

When the University of Florida's long-time head coach, Bill Harlan, retired in 1976, Florida athletic director

Ray Graves Samuel Ray Graves (December 31, 1918 – April 10, 2015) was an American professional football player and college football coach. He was a native of Tennessee and a graduate of the University of Tennessee, where he was the starting center and ...

named Reese as the new head coach of both the Gators men's and women's swimming and diving teams. Over the following fourteen seasons, Reese's Gators men's team posted a dual meet record of 100–21 (.826), and his Gators women's team compiled a record of 118–7 (.944), both among the best in NCAA swimming history. His Gators men's and women's teams each won two national university championship team titles; the women in 1979 and 1982, and the men in 1983 and 1984. His women swimmers won seventy-six

AIAW The Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) was a college athletics organization in the United States, founded in 1971 to govern women's college competitions in the country and to administer national championships (see AIAW Cham ...

and NCAA individual titles. Seventy-nine of his Gators women garnered more than 500

All-American The All-America designation is an annual honor bestowed on outstanding athletes in the United States who are considered to be among the best athletes in their respective sport. Individuals receiving this distinction are typically added to an Al ...

honors and sixty of his Gators men earned more than 200 All-American honors. He was the NCAA Women's Coach of the Year in 1982 and 1988, and the NCAA Men's Coach of the Year in 1984 and 1985.''2008–09 Gators Swimming & Diving Media Guide''
History and Records
University Athletic Association, Gainesville, Florida, p. 99 (2008). Reese earned a total of ten SEC Coach of the Year awards—seven for the men's team in 1979, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986 and 1990 and three for the women's team in 1987, 1988 and 1990. Reese developed a reputation for his innovative theories on training and nutrition, many of which are used by top American coaches. Over the years, he employed such unusual training methods as having his Florida Gators swimmers swim upstream in the nearby Ichetucknee River, do training workouts fully clothed, crawl their way up the entrance ramp of

Ben Hill Griffin Stadium Ben Hill Griffin Stadium (in full Steve Spurrier-Florida Field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium), Reese gives up women's job
" ''Gainesville Sun'', pp. 1C & 6C (January 12, 1990). Retrieved April 12, 2010. and then control of the men's team in April.Pat Dooley,
Reese Era ends for UF swimming
" ''Gainesville Sun'', pp. 1C & 5C (April 26, 1990). Retrieved April 12, 2010.

U.S. Olympic and other national teams

Reese was selected as an assistant U.S. coach for the 1980 Moscow Olympics, the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics and the 1988 Seoul Olympics, as well as the 1979 Pan American Games and the 1987 Pan Pacific Games. His U.S. Swimming team, Florida Aquatic Swim Team (FAST) and Holmes Lumber Aquatic Swim Team were among the best in United States club history and collectively won fourteen national team championships. Reese's individual swimmers set sixteen world records, including five world records by

Tracy Caulkins Tracy Anne Stockwell, OAM, (born January 11, 1963), née Tracy Anne Caulkins, is an American former competition swimmer, three-time Olympic gold medalist, five-time world champion, and former world record-holder in three events. Caulkins was ...

, four by

Rowdy Gaines Ambrose "Rowdy" Gaines IV (born February 17, 1959) is an American former competitive swimmer, U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame member, three-time Olympic gold medalist, and member of the International Swimming Hall of Fame. He is referred to as "The ...

, two by each of

Martin López-Zubero Martin may refer to: Places Antarctica * Martin Peninsula, Marie Byrd Land * Port Martin, Adelie Land * Point Martin, South Orkney Islands Europe * Martin, Croatia, a village * Martin, Slovakia, a city * Martín del Río, Aragón, Spain * M ...

Craig Beardsley Craig Russell Beardsley (born 1960) is an American former competition swimmer who was a world record-holder in the 200-meter butterfly for three years in the early 1980s. Although he qualified as a member of the 1980 U.S. Olympic Team, Beardsle ...

and

Dara Torres Dara Grace Torres (born April 15, 1967) is an American former competitive swimmer, who is a 12-time Olympic medalist and former world record-holder in three events. Torres is the first swimmer to represent the United States in five Olympic Ga ...

, and one by

Duncan Armstrong Duncan John D'Arcy Armstrong (born 7 April 1968) is an Australian former competitive swimmer, Olympic champion, and former world record-holder. Armstrong is best remembered for winning a gold and silver medal at the 1988 Summer Olympics. Ear ...

. Reese retired from full-time coaching in 1990 and accepted a position as the regional president of Teamstaff Companies, Inc., which directed and trained leasing and sales brokers. In 1996, he started his own company, Peak Mortgage Company, as principal and chief executive officer. Reese's retirement from coaching did not last long, and he later became the head coach at Circle C Ranch Swim Team—which later merged with Texas Aquatics to form Longhorn Aquatics, co-coached by his brother Eddie. Reese has authored several swimming journal articles, co-authored the book ''A Scientific Approach to the Sport of Swimming'' with John Troup, and published a second book ''Building a Championship Season with Randy Reese''. He is currently the director of aquatics for the Clearwater Aquatics Team in

Clearwater, Florida Clearwater is a city and the county seat of Pinellas County, Florida, United States, west of Tampa, Florida, Tampa and north of St. Petersburg, Florida, St. Petersburg. To the west of Clearwater lies the Gulf of Mexico and to the southeast lies T ...

Honors

Reese was inducted into the University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame as an "honorary letter winner" in 1997, Eight Join UF Hall of Fame
" ''The Gainesville Sun'', p. 2C (April 4, 1997). Retrieved July 23, 2011. and the

(ISHOF) as an "honor coach" in 2005. Reese's older brother,

Eddie Reese Edwin Charles Reese (born July 23, 1941) is a Hall of Fame American college and Olympic swimming coach, and a former college swimmer for the University of Florida. Reese won 15 NCAA team championships as the head coach of the University of Texa ...

, who coached the University of Texas at Austin from 1978-2024, and was also an Olympic swimming coach, was inducted into the ISHOF in 2002.

References

Bibliography

* Caraccioli, Jerry, & Tom Caraccioli, ''Boycott: Stolen Dreams of the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games'', New Chapter Press, Washington, D.C. (2009). . * Hannula, Dick, & Nort Thornton, eds., ''The Swim Coaching Bible'', Human Kinetics, Champaign, Illinois (2001). . * Proctor, Samuel, & Wright Langley, ''Gator History: A Pictorial History of the University of Florida'', South Star Publishing Company, Gainesville, Florida (1986). . * Troup, John, & Randy Reese, ''A Scientific Approach to the Sport of Swimming'', Scientific Sports, Gainesville, Florida (1983). . {{DEFAULTSORT:Reese, Randy 1946 births Living people Olympic coaches for the United States American swimming coaches Florida Gators swimming coaches Florida State Seminoles men's swimmers Sportspeople from Daytona Beach, Florida